Tuesday, June 2, 2015

Top Ten Tuesday: Make these books into movies NOW (pretty please)

More specifically, good movies if possible. If not possible, respectfully, leave them alone.

It is Top Ten Tuesday again, hosted by The Broke and the Bookish. This week's theme: Top Ten Books I'd Like to See as Movies/TV Shows. So, this is my regularly scheduled cry to the universe. It worked the last time I tried, so I there is hope (Thank you, Internet!).

Here is my wishlist:

Mary Renault: The King Must Die

I know I keep mentioning this book, but it has been a long time movie dream of mine. Not many movies take place in Minoan Crete (can you think of any?...), even though it would make a gorgeous setting, full of color and life. And bull-dancers! And women with vests that leave their boobs out! (Hollywood just left the room, didn't they). It's mythology, and action, and history, and acrobatics, and visuals, and boobs, and layered characters.

Guys. Seriously.

Marvel's Runaways

Joss Whedon. All you need to know. He was actually casting for a Runaways movie before the Avengers came along, and the project has been on hold ever since. The closest thing we got to a Runaways flick was Big Hero 6 (which really is pretty much Runaways in disguise, when you think about it). But I would really, really love to see the real thing.

Also, Jurassic World proves that Hollywood is totally ready for pet dinosaurs.

Marissa Meyer: The Lunar Chronicles

I am guessing already that this one will take the cake in this week's TTT. I put it on my list too, even though I'm ambivalent about it: I would love to see it happen and done well, but at the same time, I love it how Meyer never gave detailed descriptions of her characters, and I don't want canon faces attached to them. Hard choice.

William Joyce: Jack Frost (Guardians of Childhood)

I'm totally cheating here: I really just want a sequel to Rise of the Guardians. I really, really, really do. Pretty please?

(But I am also looking forward to the book! It looks very pretty.)

Michael Ende: Momo

I can imagine this book done in the animation style of Song of the Sea. The same author as The Neverending Story, but a more concise and smaller-scale tale about the nature of time, life, and storytelling. Ende deserved a Nobel for this one.

Gods and Fighting Men

Please, someone, for the love of everything that's holy, make a cable TV show out of the Fianna legends. Rated R or higher, and done with a team of storytellers and cultural advisors. It has to be TV because you'll never cram all of them in a movie format; and it has to be well done, otherwise the wrath of all storytellers in the world will descend on you and you will suffer in Irish stereotype hell for all eternity, tortured by cheerful plastic leprechauns.

(Yes, I have strong feelings about stories I like, why do you ask?)

Vladimir Obruchev: Plutonia

One of the great book loves of my childhood, this volume tells the story of a team of Russian scientists that descend into the inside of the hollow Earth to find cavemen, ice age megafauna, and dinosaurs still living in there. What I love about it is that it was very Russian-scientific: The characters took their time to measure, take samples, document, and follow procedure. There is no Hollywood archaeology in it, no "oh look, that goo looks funny, let's put my hands in it" bullshit. There are definitely adventures - but the heroes are real scientists that stick to their main goal of exploring, even in the midst of being chased by giant ants. The film world is overdue for a movie with science done right.

I know this is only 7, but I have already exhausted my wishing powers for this week. Looking forward to seeing what other TTT participants are hoping for!

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